Not all MBA students enter their MBA program with the same knowledge and skills.

Not all MBA programs address the disparity of knowledge and skills of incoming students in a way that eliminates the disparities.

Entering MBA students with knowledge and skill deficits have a competitive disadvantage during the program and perhaps even throughout their professional lives.

MBA programs foster a competitive spirit by design.

MBA students are competitive.

MBA students seek ways to differentiate themselves from their peers.

MBA student knowledge and skill development can start before the first day of class.

Many MBA programs view knowledge and skill development of this nature beyond the scope of their curriculum.

Many MBA students would like to participate in foundation knowledge and skill development anonymously.

When done right, differentiation provides a competitive advantage.

Founder of MyeEMBA

My name is Rodney Alsup and I am the creator of this Blog and its companion web site, MyeEMBA.com. I have almost 30 years of higher education teaching and administrative experience, most of which is working with MBA students.

MyeEMBA Name

I extracted the following from a colleague’s email after she reviewed the MyeEMBA web site.

“I am looking at your new website now, and I am really tripping over the URL. I think it is my-e-emba. It is very difficult to say that url aloud, or even in my head… so even though I KNOW what it is, I just said my-e-mba. It is not easy to write myeemba.com.”

I find her feedback satisfying, at least from a marketing standpoint. My guess is she will not forget the site name. Even so, given her comments, I thought I would provide some guidance on the name, its meaning, and pronunciation.

MyeEMBA can be thought of as a combination of MyMBA, MyEMBA, and MyeMBA. My [mī] is the possessive form of “I,” which reinforces to MBA students that the MBA program in which they are enrolled is their program. The intent is to encourage MBA students to take ownership of their MBA program. MBA [em.bee.ey.] is the universal abbreviation for Master of Business Administration and most often used to describe both full-time and part-time MBA programs even though many colleges and universities apply some type of brand name to their MBA program. The E [ee] MBA refers to Executive MBA programs and e or e- [ee] MBA refers to electronic or online MBA programs. I would suggest either of two pronunciations, mīeeembeeey or mīembeeey. However, the most important thing to remember is the URLs, www.MyeEMBA.com for the web site or www.blog.MyeEMBA.com for the Blog.

Why MyeEMBA Blog?

During my academic career, I observed that not all MBA programs are alike and, more importantly, not all MBA students are alike. This is most apparent when it comes to preparation for starting their MBA program and for competing in their program. Unfortunately, the variances in preparation will often lead to individual performance differences and thus a competitive disadvantage throughout the program and their careers.

Fortunately, there are ways for individuals admitted into an MBA program to prepare themselves so their individual performance differences are turned into a positive difference and thus a competitive advantage throughout the program, and more importantly throughout their professional careers. Much of the preparation involves knowledge and skill development not normally included in the curriculum of most MBA programs, or if provided is done in a piece meal fashion or as an optional undertaking while enrolled in the program.

This Blog site is dedicated to helping MBAs gain the knowledge and learn the skills that will help them differentiate themselves while in their MBA program and to compete with the close to 100,000 MBA graduates each year. By sharing, their own experiences and promoting MBA sharing, a community of MBAs can be built that will benefit all MBAs that follow.

I started thinking about the concept of helping MBAs in 2007 get more out of their programs. At the end of 2008, I shared a concept paper with several MBA associates from around the US. Based on their feedback and encouragement, I continued working on the concept and in November 2009, I started building MyeEMBA.com, a web site that was naively designed and published in April 2010. I referred to this as version 1.0 when I sent it another group of MBA colleagues. Based on their feedback I engaged a professional web designer to help me build version 2.0, the results of which are found at www.MyeEMBA.com. The MyeEMBA Blog is also part of the new look intended to allow MBAs to interact with me and other MBAs around their topics of interest.

Window of Opportunity

A window of opportunity presents itself with every MBA admission. I define the window as the time between the date of acceptance and the first day of class. Other formal activities will precede the first day of class such as completing some type of online assessment or completing some administrative paperwork. The first day of class is when “stuff” happens in a big way. It is the first day that many MBAs start asking themselves, “What have I gotten into?”

This window varies in length depending on how early in the pipeline you were notified of acceptance. It can range from a few weeks to months.

Accepted! Now What?

Let me reword this question and add a time constraint, “I have been accepted into my MBA program of choice so what should I do in the next 60 days before classes start to differentiate myself so I have a competitive advantage?” My intent is to provide a list of suggestions or “to dos” that if completed will help differentiate yourself and gain a competitive advantage. You will find the prioritized list in the section, “Accepted! Now What?” You will have the opportunity to comment, add to the list, and help with the prioritization. Other major sections will be added as we grow.

3 comments for “About MyeEMBA”

I just visited your Web site and found it very informative. I noticed a lot of the information on your Web site was great for professionals researching MBA Programs. I’m working with UNC Kenan-Flagler to help promote their Web site, and thought you and your readers might find Kenan-Flagler’s Web site interesting and informative.

If you go to UNC Kenan-Flagler’s EMBA home page (http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/emba/), you’ll find a lot of information on UNC Kenan-Flagler’s EMBA program, but also information on the general benefits of obtaining an MBA. The site contains student profiles and videos of students discussing topics like the ROI of an MBA, leadership development, and home-work-school balance.

If you find the content informative, please feel free to mention it on your site or link to any of the Web site’s content.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments, and thank you for taking the time to read this!

Please let me know if you accept paid guest posts on your site, Mye EMBA. I work with freelance writers to create posts on sites like yours that link to a clients page within the context of the post. These are never reviews or advertisements for the link, just informational posts that are tailored to fit the content and audience of the site they are written for.

Is that something you are interested in discussing? If you are, what are your guidelines for this type of agreement?